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A Pizza Blog, Established In 2008Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:34:13 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1Pupatella: Neapolitan Pies In Arlington, Virginiahttp://idreamofpizza.com/2013/07/pupatella.html
http://idreamofpizza.com/2013/07/pupatella.html#commentsTue, 23 Jul 2013 16:15:10 +0000I Dream Of Pizzahttp://idreamofpizza.com/?p=2235Over the past couple of years some of my friends in Washington, DC have been raving about Pupatella (5104 Wilson Boulevard). It’s located in the suburb of Arlington, Virgina about 15 minutes outside of Washington. Pupatella actually started as food cart in nearby Ballston close to the intersection of N. Stuart Street and N. 9th Street. But in 2010 they made the move to a brick and mortar location. Step inside and you’ll see a bright red pizza oven and a staff of 3-4 prepping pies at a pizza making station.

All orders are placed at a counter and brought to your table when they’re done. This counter-style service seems to be more of an inconvenience than it is sensible. First off, when the restaurant is crowded, you could spend a good 5-10 minutes in line, rather than sitting down with your party. Second, if you’re planning on splitting the bill, it involves some organization (should the person waiting in line hand the cashier four credit cards?). Third, if you order drinks like tap beer or sangria, you’re provided with a receipt and then must go to a bar in another room to have your drink poured. Do you tip the cashier? The bartender? It’s a unique set up, but at the end of the day, I think I’d rather be seated like I would at any other restaurant.

None of the pies on the regular menu — which features 13 red pies and 4 white pies — exceed $12. But on the night I was there, there was a separate menu featuring three special pizzas: Fig & Pig ($15), and Burrata ($14), and Pesto ($13). We ordered the latter two amongst our five pies. In addition, we had a Margherita DOC, Eggplant & Red Pepper, and Prosciutto Arugula. All of the names, as you can probably tell, are descriptive. The Margherita was very good — what you’d expect at a high quality pizza place. The Eggplant & Red Pepper pie was surprisingly tasty. What I really liked was the fact that the pie contained small clumps of eggplant. Too often pizzerias will put slices of eggplant on pies and it makes it difficult to eat and frankly too eggplant-y for me. Our group had mixed reactions to the Pesto pie. It was a little dry and could have used a little olive oil drizzled on top. And the use of actual walnuts was polarizing as well.

The pizzeria was very busy on the Tuesday night we ate there. There are multiple seating areas — the front and back of the primary room with the cashier and oven — which seats about 25. And a secondary room with a bar which seats about 35. The secondary room was a recent expansion and previously occupied by Union Halal Butcher. There is also an outdoor patio. With Pupatella’s counter-style arrangement, it’s a “free for all” when it comes to tables. Although I didn’t witness any issues on the evening I was there, I can imagine situations where people are hovering over one another waiting for a party to finish their meal.

Overall, I enjoyed Pupatella much more than Virginia’s other notable Neapolitan pizza place — Pizzeria Orso — and would recommend it to Washingtonians looking to get out of the city for a laid back meal one evening.

http://idreamofpizza.com/2013/07/pupatella.html/feed303Virginia’s Pizzeria Orso: Sub-Par Pizza & Sub-Par Servicehttp://idreamofpizza.com/2010/12/virginias-pizzeria-orso-sub-par-pizza.html
http://idreamofpizza.com/2010/12/virginias-pizzeria-orso-sub-par-pizza.html#commentsFri, 24 Dec 2010 14:00:00 +0000I Dream Of Pizzahttp://idreamofpizza.com/?p=241When a beverage is the highlight of your dinner at a pizza place, that typically means either one of two things: (a) their pizza wasn’t that great or (b) they had really amazing drinks! At Pizzeria Orso (400 S. Maple Ave) in Falls Church, Virginia… it was a little of both.

So what was this magical cocktail in question? The passionfruit sangria ($9.00) which was fruity and sweet — and perhaps the only thing we ordered that arrived in a timely fashion.

It’s rare that I write about restaurant service on this site. I don’t have high expectations when it comes to service. I’ll gladly wait two hours for a Di Fara pie and many of my favorite pizza places are no frills, let-me-give-you-attitude joints. So what’s the big deal?

At Pizzeria Orso, I felt that the service was so bad that it became difficult to enjoy the meal. When we arrived at the 117-seat restaurant around 7:30PM on a Saturday evening, we were told it would be about a 35 minute wait for a four top. While that estimate ended up being pretty accurate, we could have actually been seated a lot quicker. Empty tables were often disregarded for more than 5 minutes before they were cleaned by a busboy and one customer complained that he’d had his eye on an empty table for 30 minutes. It’s important that customers don’t feel rushed, but after they’re gone, the table should be cleared immediately and reset for the next party

Once we were seated around 8:05PM, it took more than 10 minutes for anyone to notice we were there (our table, by the way, was in the middle of the crowded restaurant). We finally had to ask someone for water and a waitress came over soon after. Our drinks and appetizers arrived promptly (although the waitress forgot about my father’s soda), but it wasn’t until 9:00PM that our pies arrived, nearly an hour after we’d been seated. Mind you the pies take 90 seconds to cook.

As there were two vegetarians in our party, we ordered one pie (Capricciosa) without ham. This request was disregarded. Because there isn’t a lot of ham in this pie anyway, it wasn’t until you took a bite that it was really possible to notice the small pieces of ham. A ham-less pie was promptly made. In addition, no pies at Pizzeria Orso come sliced unless requested. This seems odd to me. Isn’t pizza meant to be shared? Even personal Neapolitan pies? We requested that the pies be sliced, but when they arrived they were not sliced. Another fail.

Had there only been an issue or two, I feel like it would have been possible to overlook them. But the restaurant didn’t seem to get anything right on this particular night. Although certainly not expected, I would have thought that at least the pie they initially served us with ham would be comped when we received the check. That was not the case.

All of these mishaps aside, the pizza was decent. I wouldn’t put it in the top tier of Neapolitan pizzas I’ve had, but it’s worth noting that I was in Falls Church, Virginia. The suburban town outside of Washington, DC isn’t known as a pizza hub. For locals, it very well might be the best pizza around. The place provides a lively atmosphere. Children could be seen posing with a wood bear (shown above) at the entrance, and there are even arcade games to keep you occupied while you wait. Adults down drinks by the bar (beers on tap included Anderson Valley Winter Solstice and Left Hand Milk Stout, each $6.00 per pint). They even have specials on pies during Redskins games.

The best pie was the Margherita D.O.C. although the cheese to sauce ratio very much favored the latter. Our white pie was pretty standard and the toppings on the Capriccisoa were uninspiring. I’ve been on an artichoke kick lately, but it would have been nice if they were cut into smaller pieces. Our pie contained a couple of artichoke chunks. It appeared that the ingredients were carelessly thrown onto the pie, resulting in bites that might contain a lot of one topping, like mushrooms, and none of another.

Pie prices range from $12.00 – $18.00. Considering that pies at Manhattan spots like Motorino start at $9.00, I’d say Pizzeria Orso was a little pricey. But if they can fill up their restaurant with prices like that… why not? I’m not sure I’d ever return to Pizzeria Orso with so many other high quality pizza places setting up shop in the DC area. But if you live around the corner, it sure beats Domino’s and Papa John’s.